Bucks soldier honoured for canal rescue (From Bucks Free Press)

Chalfont St Peter soldier honoured for canal rescue

5:12pm Sunday 26th September 2010 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

Connor Maxwell. Photo: Corporal Steve Blake RLC

A BUCKS soldier who dived into a canal to rescue a comrade after he was injured by a Taliban bomb is to be awarded for his bravery.

Second Lieutenant Connor Maxwell, 22, from Chalfont St Peter, showed “remarkable courage” to save a soldier who had been blasted in to the water by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Rifleman Daniel Nickson, 23, also of 3rd Battalion the Rifles, dived in alongside Lt Maxwell and helped him pull the soldier out of the fast-flowing water, enabling him to receive treatment.

The soldier had been unconscious and wearing over 60lbs of equipment.

The heroics in the Helmand province, Afghanistan, on December 15 last year have been described by the Ministry of Defence for the first time.

Lt Maxwell also saved the life of a serviceman who was wounded by an IED while training on the firing ranges at Nato's Camp Bastion base in Helmand.

He is set to be awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery at a later date.